An Overview of Self-Similar Traffic: Its Implications in the Network Design

Abstract: The knowledge about the true nature of the traffic in computer networking is a key requirement in the design of such networks. The phenomenon of self-similarity is a characteristic of the traffic of current client/server packet networks in LAN/WAN environments dominated by network technologies such as Ethernet and the TCP/IP protocol stack. The development of networks traffic simulators, which take into account this attribute, is necessary for a more realistic description the traffic on these networks and their use in the design of resources (contention elements) and protocols of flow control and network congestion. In this scenario it is recommended do not adopt standard traffic models of the Poisson type.